Dare to Be Different: Focus on Innovation

Do you consider yourself innovative? Are you willing to step away from the status quo to try something new and different? If this isn’t how you typically operate, you may benefit from introducing more innovation into your daily life. Not only will it help you avoid burnout, but it can spark new opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Innovation occurs when you introduce a new idea, a new process or a new way to look at an old activity. Although it may seem simple, being innovative is not always easy. If you struggle with conceptualizing and executing new and different ideas, there are several mindsets that can help you focus on innovation. If you’re ready to try something new, here are some ways to allow more innovation and room for growth in your business and personal life.

Take Risks

One big part of innovation is being willing to step outside of your comfort zone and take a risk. Every new idea is not successful right out of the gate, but if you’re not willing to take a chance, you’ll never know if your idea has staying power.

Be Creative

If you’re creative by nature, you’re already ahead of the innovation game, but sometimes you need to find structure for your creativity in order to use it for innovation. This can be a huge challenge and one that takes some practice, but if you’re able to develop focused creativity, you may find a whole slew of new and innovative ideas worth exploring.

Be Overly Ambitious

I’m a proponent of aiming high and going big, whenever possible. Just like with taking risks, you have to put yourself out there if you’re going to accomplish anything of value. And ambition is what it takes to be consistently and successfully innovative. You have to be willing to take the leap and risk failure in order to practice an innovative philosophy.

Remove Preconceptions

On the flip side of ambitious innovation, keep in mind that innovation isn’t always world-changing. You can be innovative, even if you focus on small and personal changes. A great way to start innovating is by letting go of the pressure of having to change the world and focusing on changing one manageable aspect of your life by doing something new and different.

Experiment

As they say, practice makes perfect, so keep trying for new and different approaches. Many times, innovation relies heavily on trial and error, so give it a go and if it flops, you have the experience under your belt for your next attempt.

What does innovation mean to you? Does being innovative play a role in your life?